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What happens when you play Civilization II for 10 years? It's not a pretty sight

A Civ fan on Reddit named Lycerius has been playing the same game of Civilization II for the past ten years. The game has reached the year 3991, and the Earth is not a pretty sight. In fact, the world is pretty much a crapsack place, tortured by the environment and nuclear war.

According to Lycerius, there are three superpowers left: the Celts, Vikings and Americans. They are locked in never-ending war, having caused the ice caps to melt 20 times due to nuclear strikes. Basically, the Earth is one big irradiated swamp.

Not that Lycerius hasn't tried to free the world of war. "Every time a cease fire is signed, the Vikings will surprise attack me or the Americans the very next turn, often with nuclear weapons. Even when the U.N forces a peace treaty," the blogger sighed.

He went on to describe, "Big cities are a thing of the distant past. Roughly 90% of the worlds population (at it's peak 2000 years ago) has died either from nuclear annihilation or famine caused by the global warming that has left absolutely zero arable land to farm."

Infrastructure? "Engineers (late game worker units) are always busy continuously building roads so that new armies can reach the front lines," Lycerius related, "Roads that are destroyed the very next turn when the enemy goes. So there isn't any time to clear swamps or clean up the nuclear fallout."

The world is run by communism and religious fanaticism now, and he can't change that either. "I wanted to stay a democracy, but the Senate would always over-rule me when I wanted to declare war before the Vikings did," Lycerius explained. "This would delay my attack and render my turn and often my plans useless. And of course the Vikings would then break the cease fire like clockwork the very next turn."

In this world, democracy is a thing of the past, and towns can't grow because all of the money is funneled into the military. He stated, "I was forced to do away with democracy roughly a thousand years ago because it was endangering my empire. But of course the people hate me now and every few years since then, there are massive guerrilla (late game barbarians) uprisings in the heart of my empire that I have to deal with which saps resources from the war effort."

Lycerius is determined to clear swamps and start farming again - somehow. "I want to rebuild the world. But I'm not sure how. If any of you old Civ 2 players have any advice, I'm listening," he begged.

If anything, this particular game is a pretty brutal object lesson. Maybe human extinction would be a kinder fate than the people suffering in this long Civ II game.